Masked rapist tells victim he 'had to do it,' investigators say

A woman screamed when she woke up at 4 a.m. to find a masked man armed with a knife, lurking over her bed. The intruder raped her and told her: “You really should deadbolt your door because I didn’t really want to do this, but I had to do it.”

And the attacker, later identified as Timothy Walding, 18, of West Boynton, even offered to do yard work to make up for raping his neighbor.

Walding also told the woman it wouldn’t be awkward living down the street from him because he’d be joining the military at the end of the month, according to a Palm Beach Sheriff’s arrest report.

After the woman said she managed to get Walding to leave, deputies arrested him Friday.

The ordeal started at about 4 a.m. Friday when the woman woke up to see Walding. He put his hand over her mouth, the knife to her neck, and told her not to scream, according to the report.

“You really should deadbolt your door because I didn’t really want to do this but I had to do it.”— Timothy Walding, according to the report

He tied her hands to the bed and raped her. She cried afterward, pleading with the man not to kill her. He told her he wouldn’t, saying he wouldn’t leave her two children without a mom, according to the report.

Walding kept insisting to the woman that she knew him. But she was able only to see his eyes, and didn’t know who he was. She tried to convince the man of that while trying to figure out a way that he could keep her tied up and leave, according to the report.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

Timothy Walding, 18, of West Boynton, is accused of breaking into a woman's home and raping her at knifepoint.Handout photo provided by: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

Timothy Walding, 18, of West Boynton, is accused of breaking into a woman's home and raping her at knifepoint.Handout photo provided by: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

“[The woman] said the more she spoke with to the suspect, she realized he was very young,” a detective wrote in the report.

Shortly after, the woman guessed Walding’s identity and he pulled off his mask, the woman later told deputies.

The woman asked Walding how he got in her house and he pulled out a fish hook and told her he used it to pick her lock.

That’s when he told her she should deadbolt her door. He went on to say that he spent 10 minutes outside the woman’s front door, contemplating whether he would break in, according to the report.

“Obviously it wasn’t a spontaneous thing and I had this plan,” Walding said to the woman after she asked why he did it, according to the report.

He describe his plan, which involved waiting for the woman’s air conditioning to click off and on twice before putting on her flip-flops because his socks were wet from the walk to her house.

After managing to convince Walding to untie her and let her outside to smoke a cigarette, he asked if there was anything he could do to make it up to her, even offering to do yard work or fixing something around her house. She said no, according to the report.

After managing to get her intruder to leave after almost an hour and a half with him, the woman locked her doors, ran upstairs and called a friend before calling 911.

Deputies went to Walding’s home and, after confirming with the woman that it was the same man who attacked her, arrested him.

Walding faces burglary, sexual assault and kidnapping charges. He was booked into Palm Beach County Jail on Friday.